I bought this 12v to 5v converter for use on a robot, now I am trying to use it to power a servo gimbal on my quad. I tried providing it with 11.1 volts from a power supply to simulate a 3s lipo and it provided a solid 5.1V. It continued to hold that voltage to below 10v. What I am wondering is this: is it safe to connect this directly to the servo rail on the PX4 using a regular plug with the signal wire removed? Also is there any inline protection I need to protect against ground loops or voltage differences between the converter and the 3DR power module? My setup is a Flamewheel f450 with a PX4 with uBlox GPS and 915Mhz telemetry.
Thanks,
luketheduke
Hi luketheduke,
The short answer to your question is Yes !!
I have used a converter (12v–> 5v) to power the servo rail, not to do so may cause malfunction issues
within the autopilot. At the moment I use a 5 amp BEC to power all 5 servos on my Penguin aircraft.
Remove the signal wire (white or yellow) from your BEC …your converter has no sig. wire… and plug
in to any spare servo port. …oh yes observe polarity !!! You may use the flight battery as the 12 v source or a separate bat.
hope that helps a bit CaptainCanopy.